St. Clair trustees addressed over flooding problems

Steve Rappach

Reporter

srappach@reviewonline.com

CALCUTTA — A township resident addressed the St. Clair Township trustees on Tuesday to discuss what he called a “serious water problem” in his area.

Purinton Road resident Gary Davis discussed flooding problems near his home, which he said has affected his property and two other neighboring properties.

Davis, accompanied by his wife, told the trustees the road department has been out for at least three years to try to alleviate the problems with flooding, which he said has come from four different roads. He said it is now affecting his drain and septic tank and had “gotten to the point where it’s unbearable.”

“Right now, I’m getting water from four different streets around us,” Davis said.

One approach Davis wanted to take was to ditch around Clifton Avenue, but said the water can’t get off the road. He said two of the houses have pipes that are of different sizes avoiding the catch basins, and the water is coming down to the top of his ditch.

Davis also said because of the drainage issue, the water and bus traffic has caused a portion of asphalt at a catch basin to erode, costing him nearly $1,000 in repairs each time he fixed it.

“I’ve had to rebuild that thing two times,” Davis said. “I just got done this year, and every time I do it, it runs anywhere between $600 to $1,000. I’ve tried everything that I can do.”

Although road foreman Scott Barrett said the pipes had been installed prior to Davis’ mobile home being placed on the property and that there wasn’t much that could be done, Trustee Chairman James Hall said he would get with road foreman Scott Barrett and see what more could be done.

Barrett also discussed the longtime drainage issues on Huston Road, which he considered “a mess, as always.”

The road crew, Barrett said, dug three feet of ditching back in 2007, as a way to resolve the drainage issues on that road, but said the attempts have not worked out as well. He said the road department will continue to work on it as much as possible.

“It might dry two days, and then it rains,” Barrett said. “It’s just a tough time of year.”

Meanwhile, during his report, Barrett advised trustees and police the road department has spotted several places along Duke Road where someone had been dumping off tires on the road. He said the road crew has been picking up tires on a daily basis there as of late.

“Everyday there’s a couple more and I can’t keep track,” Barrett said. “They’re in little different spots. I’d have the neighbors look around to see who it is. We’ve been picking up a couple every day, so that’s a new dumping spot.”

Barrett said tires have been found in different locations each time, leadin him to believe it may have been done by the same person. He is asking residents in the area to keep an eye out and report any activity of illegal dumping.